Tales from Len Forest
by Gnifle
Summary: Meet Gnifle the Quilava in a short story covering the lives of the Pokemon in the "haunted" Len Forest, as well as Gnifle's search on finding out what his personal treasure means - and retrieving said treasure from a bunch of bad guys.


_Hi, I am new to and was experimenting with this system and how it works. This story/chapter is __**not**__ in any way finished yet, so if anyone comes across this and feel like reading, please hold on with your reviews and anything just yet. Thank you!_

Somewhere in a small spot in the marvelous Johto region, just a tad south of Goldenrod City, is a small, nearly unnoticed town which is known to most people as Len Town. In an even smaller spot, just north of Len Town, lies the Len Forest.

Len Forest was once a part of the mazelike Azalea Forest, but many decades ago, when the town of Azalea was raised, a lot of timber was harvested deep inside the yet-to-become Azalea Forest. Due to a burning wish from the investors of Azalea Town, the forest just around the town was left in peace, which therefore meant that the lumberjacks and their trusted Pokémon partners had to roam deeper into the forest in search of usable wood. Huge areas of healthy blooming trees were chopped down and cut into planks, but as the work progressed, more and more workers suddenly found themselves quitting their jobs, claiming that the forest was haunted. Soon, the rest of the workers refused to continue chopping trees, due to the exact same accusations that the forest was haunted by evil spirits. Despite all the hard work, and all the money invested in this building project, the workers were unshakeable on this matter, and as a result Azalea Town was left at the size it is today.

As for the huge, bare areas where the trees once stood, later investors saw an opportunity to let a small town grow. Since all the wild Pokémon had fled deeper into the formed Azalea Forest, the investors met little to no objections in regards to settle on this small piece of wasteland. At that time, no one even bothered to listen to the people claiming that the surrounding forest was haunted. Few years passed and the town was blooming with shops, children in the small local school and adventurers travelling through this small town to reach the capital city in Johto, Goldenrod City. However, people who had dared to investigate the northern forest soon realized that the stories of the forest being haunted might not be far from the truth anyways. In order to stay safe from these ghosts, the townspeople acquired Psychic-type Pokémon to be able to feel safe at night.

As such, the haunted forest became known as Len Forest. Due to the lack of visitors, other than brave adventurers and paranormal researchers, the forest was left unspoiled. The Pokémon of the forest therefore lived safe and happily, and today the Len Forest is home to an unknown number of different Pokémon. Out of all these Pokémons, are also the reasons to the forests' rumors in the shape of a bunch of Ghost-type Pokémons. Despite these rumors, the Ghost-type Pokémons are pretty nice, and all Pokémon in the forest share a common respect for these haunting guardians of the forest.

Amongst the vast population of the forest, you'll also find **me**. My name is Gnifle, yet most other Pokémon usually know me as nothing but _Quilava_. I've been living in this forest for as long as I can remember, living beneath the ground in my very own cave which I've dug all by myself. I created my shed on a hillside deep inside the forest, with the entrance facing towards the small river which is running through the entire forest and has many small branches here, there and everywhere. The area is great in many ways; the neighbors are friendly, there's plenty of food in the nearby areas and the river water is crystal clear and tastes fantastically. Though this is all very nice, the best part is that my best buddy Cyndaquil, though everyone usually calls him _Scott_ for some weird reason, lives just nearby. We're together virtually every day, foraging for food or just having a great time together.

Scott and I met during the annual Pokémon athletics contest, in which the forest Pokémon competes in various fun disciplines. More specifically, we met up rather head-on as part of the pentathlon final. The pentathlon is one of the many disciplines our forest athletics, and both Scott's and my own team had made it to the grand finale. The rules are simple; there needs to be a total of 5 Pokémon on each team, each with a unique and specific type. This includes a Flying-type, a Water-type, a Fighting-type, a Grass-type as well as a Fire-type. As Scott and me participated as the Fire-type for each respective team, we were designated to have a full frontal battle whereas the other disciplines involved a flying speed race, a water show, a strength test and a wood-carving challenge.

As our fight started, I immediately decided to try and take advantage of me being an evolutionary stage above this Cyndaquil. As the forests' crowd was cheering in a wide circle around us, the both of us collided in a massive Headbutt from each side, sending us flying back. I tried to go in for a sneaky and fast counter move with my Quick Attack which I had tried my best to train to perfection before this years' pentathlon. However, I had underestimated Scotts' strength by quite a bit, and a fast dodge and Flame Wheel to counter my attack had me so surprised, that the combined force of his move had sent me packing on the ground, with him hanging above me in mid-air. He was readying another Headbutt to go in as a finisher. At this point I could hardly believe what was happening. This guy had beaten me at my own game. _Could he have secretly spied on any of my training regime?_ Unfortunately for him, I fully regained my composure as he was about to perform his dive, and as he came closer and closer towards the ground, I felt my entire chest burning with heat and almost in the blink of an eye I had gotten on my feet, used my Quick Attack to return to an attacking position and prepared myself for my own Flame Wheel. And despite how fast he reacted, or how strong he really was, there was no way that he could somehow defy gravity. And as he was tumbling down with high speed I let him have the full force of the strongest Flame Wheel I have ever managed to pull off. I'm not really sure how or why I was able to do this, but something in this guy just seemed to spark my inner competitive spirit. I had never enjoyed a battle so much before, and at some point I wished it would never end.

The crowd grew silent by the swift moves I had just pulled off, which had sent the Cyndaquil flying out of control, and landing harshly on his side. As both of us regained composure once again, we were now standing right in front of each other, the one eyeing the other harder than the first one. Nobody made a move for quite some time. It felt like minutes, but all of this must've happened in a period of time that might not even cover ten seconds. However, the surprise factor and the harsh landing for Cyndaquil had taken very hard on him, and as he finally gave in to his tired body, his eyes went spiraling, while he tipped over and landed on his right side with next to no noise. As the match had ended, the crowd was going even wilder than before. The rest of both our teams joined us on the stage and we helped Scott back on his legs. Despite being a little shaky and dizzy from the flight and the fall, he was otherwise unharmed and had no problems putting on a huge smile as we shook paws.

"Wauw, was that ever an intense battle?" I exclaimed while still trying to fully catch my breath. "I can't remember ever having such a fast paced match like this!"

"Yeah, and even though I felt so safe in winning as I came diving in, you took me by quite a surprise," said the Cyndaquils' enthusiastic voice. "That was pretty sweet played!"

"Heh, you weren't half bad either. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that you have yet to evolve into a Quilava, I would easily have believed that you were a level hundred Cyndaquil."

"Well maybe I am! And maybe you're just a level hundred Quilava!" He laughed. "Despite losing, this is by far the most entertaining match I've ever participated in."

We both laughed shortly, as the pentathlon managers started to prepare for the Flying race competition. The crowd was rearranged around the court and a course had been marked out to make it as challenging for the contestants as possible. While all this went on, me and Scott kept our conversation going.

"The name's Gnifle," I said as I once again handed the Cyndaquil my right paw to shake it.

"The name's Scott. Or at least, that's what everybody is calling me anyways, so why not you as well?" He laughed as he grabbed an even tighter paw around mine. At this point it was clear that we were destined to have a rematch one day.

Ever since this fantastic battle, men and Scott kept in contact and we soon became what most would consider _best buddies_. Back then, his other team members had managed to make a perfect comeback by winning all the other disciplines, so him losing really didn't matter. What matters is that I made a new friend that day. A friend I've held on to ever since. And a friend I have no intentions of letting go. It has been almost a year now since we met, but to me it feels like we've known each other forever.


End file.
